MOSCOW — Russia's military chief of staff said Saturday that Moscow could use nuclear weapons in preventive strikes in case of a major threat, the latest aggressive remarks from increasingly assertive Russian authorities.
\"We have no plans to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary for all our partners in the world community to clearly understand ... that to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, military forces will be used, including preventively, including with the use of nuclear weapons,\" Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky said.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324006,00.html
It could happen at any time now...
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Nightshade
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Russia threatens nuclear attack on Ukraine
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Last Updated: 7:57pm GMT 12/02/2008
Russia has threatened to target the Ukraine with nuclear warheads if the former Soviet republic joins Nato and accepts the deployment of United States anti-missile defences on its territory.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia warned Ukraine's leader Viktor Yushchenko of \"retaliatory actions\" should his country join the Western alliance during a joint press conference in Moscow.
\"It's frightening not just to talk about this, but even to think about, that in response to such deployment, the possibility of such deployments - and one can't theoretically exclude these deployments - that Russia will have to point its warheads at Ukrainian territory,\" he said.
The Russian and Ukrainian leaders had just held emergency talks in the Kremlin to avert a energy supply crisis over Kiev gas bill - a similar dispute two years ago led to power cuts across Europe.
Mr Yushchenko responded to the Russian pressure by insisting on Ukraine's right to decide its own foreign policy while stressing that his country's constitution would not allow US military bases on its territory.
\"You understand well that everything that Ukraine does in this direction is not in any way directed at any third country, including Russia,\" he replied.
\"We follow the principle that any nation has the right to define its own security. Our constitution does not allow deployment by a third country or bloc on Ukrainian territory.\"
Mr Putin has condemned Washington's plans to include Poland and the Czech Republic in a missile defence shield as a \"new phase in the arms race\".
Russia fears the shield will threaten its national security and tip strategic military balance in Europe.
\"The goal [of the missile shield] is to neutralise our nuclear capabilities,\" said Mr Putin.
\"This would prompt Russia to take retaliatory action.\"
Moscow has already declared that Russia will pull out of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), which came into force in 1992 and restricts the deployment of troops and tanks near sensitive European frontiers.
Last week, John Chipman, the head of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, warned that the \"next target of Moscow's assertive revisionism \"could be the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty of 1987.
Both would be moves that would allow Russia to build a new generation of medium-range nuclear missiles capable of striking Western Europe. As relations between Russia and many of its near neighbours deteriorate, Ukraine has submitted a formal membership request to Nato, to be considered a summit of alliance leaders in the Romanian capital of Bucharest this April.
Mr Putin has accepted an invitation to attend the meeting and Russia's parliament last month voted to stop using Soviet-built military radars in Ukraine because of Kiev's Nato ambitions.
The prospect of Nato membership is also deeply controversial in the Ukraine, where opinion polls show that over half of the country opposes it.
Russia has revived the long-range air patrols that were once a standard feature of the Cold War and US defence officials confirmed that a pair of Russian TU-95 Bear bombers overflew a US aircraft carrier in the western Pacific at an altitude of 2,000 feet (660 meters) over the weekend.
Four F-18 fighters jets intercepted the Russian bombers on Saturday morning, but not before they had overflown the USS Nimitz.
It was the second time since July 2004 that a Russian Bear bomber has overflown a US aircraft carrier.
It was not immediately known whether the United States issued any protests with the Russians.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... sia112.xml
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
Last Updated: 7:57pm GMT 12/02/2008
Russia has threatened to target the Ukraine with nuclear warheads if the former Soviet republic joins Nato and accepts the deployment of United States anti-missile defences on its territory.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia warned Ukraine's leader Viktor Yushchenko of \"retaliatory actions\" should his country join the Western alliance during a joint press conference in Moscow.
\"It's frightening not just to talk about this, but even to think about, that in response to such deployment, the possibility of such deployments - and one can't theoretically exclude these deployments - that Russia will have to point its warheads at Ukrainian territory,\" he said.
The Russian and Ukrainian leaders had just held emergency talks in the Kremlin to avert a energy supply crisis over Kiev gas bill - a similar dispute two years ago led to power cuts across Europe.
Mr Yushchenko responded to the Russian pressure by insisting on Ukraine's right to decide its own foreign policy while stressing that his country's constitution would not allow US military bases on its territory.
\"You understand well that everything that Ukraine does in this direction is not in any way directed at any third country, including Russia,\" he replied.
\"We follow the principle that any nation has the right to define its own security. Our constitution does not allow deployment by a third country or bloc on Ukrainian territory.\"
Mr Putin has condemned Washington's plans to include Poland and the Czech Republic in a missile defence shield as a \"new phase in the arms race\".
Russia fears the shield will threaten its national security and tip strategic military balance in Europe.
\"The goal [of the missile shield] is to neutralise our nuclear capabilities,\" said Mr Putin.
\"This would prompt Russia to take retaliatory action.\"
Moscow has already declared that Russia will pull out of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), which came into force in 1992 and restricts the deployment of troops and tanks near sensitive European frontiers.
Last week, John Chipman, the head of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, warned that the \"next target of Moscow's assertive revisionism \"could be the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty of 1987.
Both would be moves that would allow Russia to build a new generation of medium-range nuclear missiles capable of striking Western Europe. As relations between Russia and many of its near neighbours deteriorate, Ukraine has submitted a formal membership request to Nato, to be considered a summit of alliance leaders in the Romanian capital of Bucharest this April.
Mr Putin has accepted an invitation to attend the meeting and Russia's parliament last month voted to stop using Soviet-built military radars in Ukraine because of Kiev's Nato ambitions.
The prospect of Nato membership is also deeply controversial in the Ukraine, where opinion polls show that over half of the country opposes it.
Russia has revived the long-range air patrols that were once a standard feature of the Cold War and US defence officials confirmed that a pair of Russian TU-95 Bear bombers overflew a US aircraft carrier in the western Pacific at an altitude of 2,000 feet (660 meters) over the weekend.
Four F-18 fighters jets intercepted the Russian bombers on Saturday morning, but not before they had overflown the USS Nimitz.
It was the second time since July 2004 that a Russian Bear bomber has overflown a US aircraft carrier.
It was not immediately known whether the United States issued any protests with the Russians.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... sia112.xml
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"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" - Mao Zedong
"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" - Mao Zedong
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TIGERassault
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Here's another story about that.. yet the term 'nuclear' is nowhere to be found.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/fe ... ia.ukraine
Interesting to have a difference of that magnitude, don't ya think?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/fe ... ia.ukraine
Interesting to have a difference of that magnitude, don't ya think?
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Nightshade
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Flabby Chick
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Putin is only scary for people like you who read sensationalistic journalism, and spread it around like rancid butter. Putin is flexing his muscles to keep the home crowd happy 'cause his country is going through massive upheavals.
You wanna be scared about the Russians, be scared about the oligarths and mafioso types that control just about everything...everywhere.
You wanna be scared about the Russians, be scared about the oligarths and mafioso types that control just about everything...everywhere.
Re:
Fixed it for you.ThunderBunny wrote:Putin is one shrewed dude.
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Testiculese
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Re:
And fixed for you.Ferno wrote:Fixed it for you.ThunderBunny wrote:Putin is one shrewd dude.
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Nightshade
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DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Thursday night, Feb. 14, Syrian officials fanned out among Arab broadcasting stations with a warning: Damascus will attack Israel shortly following a decision by Syrian leaders to end its policy of restraint against its territorial violations.
Israeli land, sea, air and homeland defense units were earlier ordered to prepare to defend the country’s northern borders against attacks by Hizballah, including rocket strikes, and Syria. Reinforcements were rushed to the north.
Israel has received a stream of intelligence confirmations that Iran, Syria and Hizballah have determined not to let Mughniyeh’s death pass without an immediate response. They are working together to mount a revenge operation.
Western sources watching the funeral of the Hizballah commander Imad Mughniyeh earlier Thursday noted the absence of Hizballah’s entire command echelon and the Revolutionary Guards officers serving at Iran’s Beirut embassy. They were assumed to have gone to ground to plan a combined offensive against Israel whom they accuse of the Mughniyeh killing. Hassan Nasrallah’s threats (‘If Israel wants open war, so be it.”) were broadcast by video
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources note that the way Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki stood at Thursday’s Beirut funeral between Hizballah’s Dep. Sec. Gen Naim Qassem and the slain terrorist’s father and accepted condolences, confirmed Mughniyeh’s high-value role in Tehran’s foreign terror system. It also informed the thousands of Shiite mourners that Iran will be part of prospective retaliation for his death against Israel.
Iran and Syria have also linked their probes to find out how a hit-team penetrated the heavy security surrounding Imad Mughniyeh in an upscale Damascus neighborhood, planted a bomb in his SUV and detonated it by remote control.
Since Wednesday night, a visiting Iranian team has been at work in the Syrian capital headed by Gen. Ghassem Soleimani, commander of the al Qods Brigades, the Revolutionary Guards foreign terror arm.
Its other members are Adm. Mohammad Fadavi, Dep. Commander of the IRGC Navy, who set up the near-clash between Iranian speedboats and US warships in the Strait of Hormuz in January; and Gen. Morteza Rezai, former chief of the IRGC intelligence branch.
They are working with the Syrian team led by acting interior minister Gen. Bassam Abdul Majid.
Israeli land, sea, air and homeland defense units were earlier ordered to prepare to defend the country’s northern borders against attacks by Hizballah, including rocket strikes, and Syria. Reinforcements were rushed to the north.
Israel has received a stream of intelligence confirmations that Iran, Syria and Hizballah have determined not to let Mughniyeh’s death pass without an immediate response. They are working together to mount a revenge operation.
Western sources watching the funeral of the Hizballah commander Imad Mughniyeh earlier Thursday noted the absence of Hizballah’s entire command echelon and the Revolutionary Guards officers serving at Iran’s Beirut embassy. They were assumed to have gone to ground to plan a combined offensive against Israel whom they accuse of the Mughniyeh killing. Hassan Nasrallah’s threats (‘If Israel wants open war, so be it.”) were broadcast by video
DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources note that the way Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki stood at Thursday’s Beirut funeral between Hizballah’s Dep. Sec. Gen Naim Qassem and the slain terrorist’s father and accepted condolences, confirmed Mughniyeh’s high-value role in Tehran’s foreign terror system. It also informed the thousands of Shiite mourners that Iran will be part of prospective retaliation for his death against Israel.
Iran and Syria have also linked their probes to find out how a hit-team penetrated the heavy security surrounding Imad Mughniyeh in an upscale Damascus neighborhood, planted a bomb in his SUV and detonated it by remote control.
Since Wednesday night, a visiting Iranian team has been at work in the Syrian capital headed by Gen. Ghassem Soleimani, commander of the al Qods Brigades, the Revolutionary Guards foreign terror arm.
Its other members are Adm. Mohammad Fadavi, Dep. Commander of the IRGC Navy, who set up the near-clash between Iranian speedboats and US warships in the Strait of Hormuz in January; and Gen. Morteza Rezai, former chief of the IRGC intelligence branch.
They are working with the Syrian team led by acting interior minister Gen. Bassam Abdul Majid.
.
"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" - Mao Zedong
"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" - Mao Zedong
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Flabby Chick
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Nightshade
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